Exploring the potential of water-soluble cereal proteins for stabilizing air-in-water dispersions in food products

The United Nations predict that the world population will rise to almost 10 billion people by 2050. A transformation of the global food system is an absolute necessity in this context. Shifting from animal protein towards plant protein based diets is expected to be one of the key pillars of this transformation. A category of food products where animal proteins are typically used are those in which stabilization of an air-in-water dispersion (or foam) is required. Cereals are one of the major global plant protein sources. While the focus in cereal protein chemistry is often on the insoluble proteins, the soluble proteins possibly have great potential for stabilizing foams. Despite this, a systematic and in-depth study of the role of water-soluble cereal flour (wheat, barley, rye and oat) proteins in determining the stability of air-water interfaces and thin liquid films is lacking. Such knowledge is of paramount importance to increase the applicability of cereal proteins in foam-based food products.

Keywords:Cereals, Proteins, Foam, Air-water interface, Thin liquid film

Disciplines:Food chemistry, Food physics, Food technology